Interstate '82 - The Thing At Hidden Base
by Ywander
Summary: A short story set in the world of Interstate games. It takes place in the sequel, Interstate '82, which features cars from the 80's and before. It's an attempt at Lovecraftian narrative mixed with a bit of X-files and the famous Interstate setting, of course. Enjoy!


_**The Thing at Hidden Base**_

I have much reluctance about what I am about to say. I know that nobody will believe me and that I will be mocked and ridiculed.

I expect nothing else.

But I will state my experiences anyway. It may be the last barrier I can hold before I go mad. The surrounding facts are not clear anymore. I cannot remember the date when it happened, nor the exact place. Nor is it clear how long it took before they found me the way they did. All I can remember I will state now for the record. You must choose yourself wether you believe me or not. Well, no sense in putting it off any longer.

It was a beautiful day. Even though my memory is as freakish as it is, I can still recall the sun shining on the hood of my '82 DeLandau. It was a good car, it had served me well during the last battle, out of which I just returned home from. I don't remember against whom I had fought, nor is it of any importantance. I had won without much damage and was on my way home. I was in a hurry, because I wanted to be home as soon as possible. I think it had to do with a rendezvous with some team mates, but again, I am not sure. There was a dirt road I had never used before and it took me along an extensive mesa formation. It ended onto an open desert plain, a expansive land of sand, dirt and an unforgiving sun overhead.. I knew that I had to be on the other side and I gunned the DeLandau to the max. I passed a huge sign stating that I was in an restricted area, private property of something called Quantech Laboratories. It smelled like government, so I took no further notice. If any local law or army boys tried to stop me, I figured I could bypass them and keep on going.

How foolish of me.

The cloud of dust trailing my car must have been visible for miles around. When they dove upon me they did so without warning. Bullets came flying out of nowhere and missile warnings rang one after another. I dodged the lot of them, lucky for me they were just heatseekers. But they were followed by a virtual hail of grenades, which took a lot more slipping 'n sliding. The explosions rocked my car like mad. After the first wave I spotted my assailers, a bunch of black Bushmasters and some Street Vans, also black. They had government written all over them, so I tried to circle around them, trying to keep heading for home. I fired a few rounds at one of the Bushmasters. He was in my way and a worthless driver. My L5000 laser tore through him in one single shot.

In retrospect, maybe that wasn't such a good idea. Those boys outnumbered me greatly and seemed all the more desperate to put a stop at me trespassing their little playground. I decided to head for the hills.

Again, not a good idea.

When I reached them, it appeared that those hills were a natural wall surrounding some sort of army base. Completely shielded from the outside world, it was a perfect bottleneck once inside. I crashed trough the few guards on foot, while they tried to .45 me. Poor bastards weren't even clever enough to jump aside before I ran them over. The base itself was heavily guarded and there was even more government inside then out. Black Royales and Clydesdale came after me, along with all the Bushmasters and Street Vans from outside the base. They pounded away at me with everything they had. Everything from .52 cals to 42 mm smashed into my DeLandau. There were even a few heatseekers that I just couldn't get out of the way of. My car was getting beaten up pretty bad and all I could was to keep my foot on the gas.

The following part is the most difficult of telling. I am not even sure myself if I haven't gone nuts already. What the hell, see if I care.

In the middle of the base was a large contraption, just sitting there on the tarmac. It had the shape of four covered ramps, joined together at the highest point. At the center of it, beneath the ramps, was some complex machinery and I did not reckognize what it could be at the time. Lights flashed and intricate piping connected all sorts of strange parts with eachother. On one side ran a thick umbilical of cables and tubes away from the strange ramp-machine and into a nearby aircraft hangar. From my perspective I could not see what was in that hangar. Would I have known I would have turned around immediately and gone back the way I came, no matter what the odds.

But instead I pressed my luck. Circling around the base, I sometimes engaged one of the slower Bushmasters or Street Vans. Missiles and grenades impacted all around and I barely kept control of the wheel. Sliding around corners, tires screaming and warning lights flashing, it was just a matter of time before the armour, or worse, the engine gave out.

Beyond the west side of the huge machine, the rockwall surrounding the base ran very close. I figured that with enough speed, I could make the jump. Of course that was before I knew what the wretched thing really was. I lined up the DeLandau between to large buildings, shielding me from my pursuers. Standing right in front of me was the ramp-machine, it's umbilical of tubes and cables running off to my right into the hangar that I could not see. Using the last of my Nitro injections, I went for the jump. As the car shot forward and I cleared the buildings, the hangar slowly came into sight. Right before I hit the ramp that would carry me to freedom, I spotted the thing that stood inside. It was half hidden in the shadows, but there was no way I could have been mistaken. It was then that I knew I had made an unforgivable mistake.

But it was too late.

I was going over a hundred miles an hour and still accelerating from the nitro boost. Still in shock, I could not turn my eyes away, but the covered ramp took it from my sight. Once inside I realised that things had gone terribly wrong. That must have been when I lost my mind for the first time. Funny though, how at such a moment of insanity some details are still so perfectly clear.

You see, time itself slowed down. This is not a dramatic metaphore, I know for a fact it did. I could not move anymore, but still retained my senses. At the other end of the ramp I could see the clear blue sky. There was a bird there, maybe a hawk or an eagle. It flew along as if nothing happened, while at the same time I saw a bullet go right through my car. I could see it in slow motion, while my mind kept it's normal rate of thought. Like I said, time must have been completely screwed up. It wasn't even that the armour was pierced, the bullet actually passed through the armour, the seats _and through me_, without any damage. It seemed I was no longer bound by the normal laws of nature, but instead had become as insubstantial as air. Then blue light flared up all around me. I saw myself go invisible, could see the inside of the ramp right through my hand and then everything just blurred into blue mist.

The elderly couple in their camper were heading for Vegas when they found me. As I have said before, I do not know how long I had been lying there next to my car, screaming. They told me that I was delirious and raved about some obscure machine from hell. They took me with them and towed my DeLandau, which was in pristine condition. Another, though minor mystery. Finally, I came to what was left of my senses in the hospital.

I tried to tell the doctor about what had happened, but he could not even hide his laughter. He He must have told others, probably getting big laughs. But they do say the walls have ears. Only the fact that I had a view onto the parking lot saved me from the men in the black Royales. I rushed out the window, stole a crappy Picard Reliable and hid myself. I never recovered my DeLandau, but that doesn't matter. I think that the men from that cursed base will find me soon enough. I just can't keep running forever. I tried of course. Many desperate fights, many last minute escapes and many heavily armed cars were involved in that. Using everything I could lay my hands on, I tried to fight back against those black Street Vans and black Clydesdales. I used El Paseo's, Lightnings, Palomino's, even a Moth truck. Each victory bought me nothing but a little time.

I even tried to find that evil place again, thinking that if I could find it again, I could expose it to the public or something. But what I found was nothing. Oh, I found the base allright. At least the spot where it once stood. The sign now said it was a testing area for nuclear warheads. The place itself was one large smouldering crater. A very efficient way of removing evidence.

But I know what once stood in that rusty old hangar. I know what powered that cursed ramp-machine that should not have been. Even now, 'they' are searching for me, trying to prevent me from spilling my insane secret, even though no-one will believe me. Because I know for a fact that this thing was not human and should not have been tampered with. Men should not meddle with the laws of nature, bending and twisting them for their own leisure. God knows where they have taken it now. It's not of this world and it should not be here. It came from 'out there' and I know it was an UFO, I just know it.

The End


End file.
